


Something Went Wrong

by MX_Reece



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:48:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23029585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MX_Reece/pseuds/MX_Reece
Summary: Did the little dove enter the void in his space travel?Did the crows wings clipped as the price?Did the void look at him, did the watchers judge?Was his wings truly his?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 152





	Something Went Wrong

**Author's Note:**

> freeform without proofreading, we die like men

He had only sighed!

He had only leaned forward a little bit!!!!

THEN WHY WAS HE PLUMMETING BACK TO HERMITCRAFT????

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
  


The splash as the boat hit water was enough to almost sink it and more than enough to soak its captain and his thick, red sweater.

But he had taken off from his base. And he could see a mushroom island.

He had gotten to season 7!

It felt like a weight had been removed from his, like the deep worry about his contraption not working was finally gone, finally dispelled and with a few swift rows the happiness took over and he went out to find his spot where he would build. He had thought about a jungle base this time to keep everything changing, so he wouldn’t get stuck in some kind of pattern after the third base. Imagine going fort, down town, modern, fort down town, modern- his servermates would get sick of him really quick if that was the only things they got to see him make so at the very least it was good to switch up the biomes.

He arrived in a mesa but that wasn’t going to get him down, the search for the trees was on!

And well he found trees, but they were acacia… no worries, he’d just ha-

Between the hills, through the valley where one was mesa and the other savanna, luscious green trees! Tall into the sky!

That’s when he noticed it. Because well Mumbo and Iskall would poke fun at a particular mannerism of his that he had only noticed, well, after they had laughed one too many times.

The weight of his anxiety hadn’t been lifted, the weight of his wings had.

**< Grian> Guys**

**< Grian> Have any of you lost any limbs or anything?**

**< Xisuma> What?**

**< Docm77> uh no**

**< Renthedog> You okay my dude?**

**< Grian> I think I might’ve glitched out or something**

**< Grian> I don’t have wings anymore**

**< iskall85> well duh**

**< iskall85> its early so no elytra lol**

**< JoeHillsSays> I think he means that he doesn’t have his actual wings.**

The he in question was leaning against the thick trunk of one of the jungle trees, feeling the emptiness and intermittent pain on his back, hyperventilating a tiny bit. It felt like when he had first got them but worse, it hurt, there was nothing there and it hurt anyways and he had thought it was from the rowing.

He didn’t notice the chat moving, people asking what was going on, others explaining, others moving on thinking it was a goof played by him. He focused on the here and now, on the bark, on the melons… on the annoying fucking bird chirping and picking at the ground!

Looking into his small and very empty inventory Grian finds some seeds, throwing them towards the parrot.

The bird picks them up and start to jump into the foliage. Grian, though, doesn’t want to see this reluctantly welcome distraction up and hop away. Some grass later he approaches the bird again with more seeds that it eats with unabashed greed. Frustrated but distracted he scrambles for more seeds that he with determined hands present to the birds a quiet, internal, chant of “come on come on come oooon”.

It picks at the seeds. And it jumps up on his finger and for a moment he forgets every worry, every anxiety, every hurt.

“I’ll call Youuu.. Professor Beak! That’s your name! Professor Beak” His voice sounded like nothing had happened, like he was ignoring what happened, what was missing.

“Come on Professor, let’s find our base location” he held up the parrot, still perched on his finger, to his shoulder where it relocated to, sitting happily next the the reinvigorated blondes fluffy hair.

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
  


Mumbo and Xisuma were concerned if not worried about the recent development of their friend who now seemed not to answer any messages. Talking through the chat the two tried to figure out where he could be but they’d gotten nowhere, Grian had been talking about wanting to set up in a jungle but it wasn’t even sure if he’d gotten to the preferred jungle yet not to mention that the sea they lived around had a jungle in two parts with large land area and dense treeline. Even if they had an elytra it’d be hard to find him and this early into the new world, well, it would be impossible.

A call was put out for everyone to message back if they saw him, it was the best they could all do at this stage.

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
  


Grian for his part had found the cliff he wanted to make his starting house in and started busying himself with work on that and mining instead of thinking about his wings, how he missed them, how his back was sore and felt so vulnerable now. No. Instead of all that, all those thoughts, he was humming as he continued clearing out the jungle around his future base, and as he continued mining, as if the thoughts and feelings couldn’t get to him if he was concentrating on the humming and the song in his head.

The growling in his stomach though had now become louder, and more painful if he might add, than the humming, and he had no food left or any decent food producing farms like a smarter person would have set up for themselves outside the base. No wheat or animal pens, no nothing. 

Getting out of the cold and frankly damp mine and into the hotter and much damper jungle wasn’t pleasant but he didn’t fancy starving to death so he’d just have to put away the red sweater… something easier said than done with all his chests filled with any possible crap… yeah he’d just have to tie it around his waist and hope it stuck for now.

A sudden flash of negative emotions, sadness, worry, emptiness- they all flooded into him at once. It was very filly he thought, so silly to get so sad just because the way he’d been removing his sweater just right to account for the wings didn’t have to be so complicated now! He should be happy actually! It’d be more convenient now, wouldn’t it.

A false smile plastered itself on his face, a ‘fake it til you make it’ smile, a smile that could only convince himself and he knew that, rooting through his messy starting storage to find a mask of a gray and yellow parrot he had gotten on the way to the base. With some string added to the sides he slipped it over his face as to not clue anyone into his now so readable face and his actual emotions in case he ran into someone.

Something which he did sooner than expected.

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
  


Scar had been working on sketches and dirt blueprints to count out the size of his starting home for more than an hour now, maybe even a few hours and finally the shell had gotten to the point where he was comfortable making the spherical centerpiece that was going to be the actual living space in this base. A glance was thrown at the failing wheat farm and the thriving melon farm, his diet… well, at least watermelon keeps you alive. He wondered why it was failing though as he worked, it was the same soil wasn’t it? Their worlds so far hadn’t had any problems with soil anyways! As long as water was close enough to the crop it would grow and it’d go even better if you sprinkled a good chunk of bonemeal on it.

A sigh escaped him. Well at least it wasn’t an existence dependent on kelp like so many others within the group had resigned themselves to.

He stood back to look at the ring of dirt, making sure the structure was to his liking ju- He put a hand up to shade his eyes, that’s not a bird over there. He took a step towards the small wheat patch and the shirtless parrotman swiftly bent down to pick another of his crops.

“he- Hey!” Scars shout didn’t much help his case and the parrotman just bent down to get even more of the ready wheat. Only after taking a considerable amount of steps closer to the culprit did the masked menace take off into the water and into the forest, Scar shouting a playful “Wheat thief!” after him and branding him the “Jungle Bandit”.

**< GoodTimeWithScar> Watch out Ren, we have a Jungle bandit on our hands**

**< Renthedog> O.o**

**< Docm77> is it the Hive Snatcher?**

**< Docm77> i am tracking down whoever it is!**

**< GoodTimeWithScar> anything is possible**

**< Xisuma> is it Grian?**

Wait.

Oh yeah.

But this bird masked menace couldn’t be Grian, no he’d never go for a bird mask or tricks, and he always wore the red sweater! And had wings, duh. Couldn’t be Grian.

**< GoodTimeWithScar> i don’t think so?**

**< GoodTimeWithScar> he was wearing a mask, was shirtless, wingless and thieving wheat**

**< Renthedog> Well the mask and wheat thievery is very in character for a wild Grian**

**< Xisuma> And he’s apparently without wings now.**

**< GoodTimeWithScar> He is?**

**< Renthedog> Yeah, there’s a Grian hunt to make sure he’s okay**

**< GoodTimeWithScar> oh…**

**< GoodTimeWithScar> i’ll follow the bandit then! Just in case**

**< Xisuma> thanks Scar**

He knew about the Grian hunt, he’d seen it in the chat but the context never really presented itself and there were so many messages in the chat already and he didn’t have a shelter so he would’ve ended up getting killed by a zombie or something while scrolling… Welp! Now he knew at least!

Assuming the lake was north of the future snail home the bandit had escaped into the jungle to the west through the lake, unlike the bandit though Scar was not about to take a bath without enchanted boots and instead took the more sensible route over land, which, thinking about it in hindsight as his sword sliced haplessly into vines, might not have been as sensible as first though.

It was worth the work and sweat though for at the end of the relatively short but still needlessly complicated walk over was a base dug into the side of a hill and inside a portal, several chests and a gray and yellow parrot mask.

**< GoodTimeWithScar> i’ve located the Jungle Bandits lair!**

**< GoodTimeWithScar> And he’s un-masked so i just have to find him**

The cave home was small, a farm and netherportal but no decorated walls and an exposed mineshaft down to what he assumed would be diamond level. No places to hide, either he had gone into the mine or fled into the nether and considering how unprotected they all were there now, the only choice Scar could see was the mine. A mine he carefully peeked into, a red sweater slipping out of view.

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
  


He was cornered, unless he dug up another way Grian would be cornered.

“Grian?” Scar called down the stairs.

“...yeah?” the hesitant reply came back.

“You know you scared everyone with your message right?” Scar sounded worried but also, in a way like he was persuading him to come out.

“Well you worried people at least, scared might be a little to strong” he continued, a giggle in his voice that bubbled to the surface at its end.

“Well I’m fIne-” his tone rose unnaturally over the fine, cracking his voice.

“Well now you are! With a belly full of wheat, Jungle bandit!”

At that Grian poked his head out so Scar could fully see his face and he did not look good, he was smiling sure but his face looked like he’d been crying for a while and not eaten or seen the sun for even longer. He looked like a mess.

“It wasn’t me!” He started.

“It was the man in the parrot mask!”

“It was the man in the chicken costume” they both continued the mantra at the same time. Grian smiled, genuinely, and Scar filled with happiness.

“Why don’t you plant your own wheat?”

A pause.

“I...” A beat “I didn’t think of that if I’m being honest with you”

The man came out further from the mine now and Scar could see, and Grian could see and now Grian knew. Because the surprise and pity was spelled so clearly on his face. And Scar could see, because the hurt and betrayal was like a theater on his face.

“I’m so sorry” Scar little more than breathed and Grian in turn shook his head.

“No, no, I’m fine” His voice told another story. “It’s fine. I haven’t always had wings-” he forced a laugh “so I’ll just get used to an elytra..” the last, muttered “when we get them”, wasn’t something Scar could hear though.

“No it’s not fine it’s like losing the vex!”

Scars outburst visibly surprised the other, whos surprise caught Scar himself off guard.

“It’s part of who you are now right? And if it’s lost it’s kinda like you lose a piece of yourself… right?”

One foot on the staircase, and another. Soon Grian stood almost in front of him, shorter naturally but even more so now, standing on a lower stair. It was so weird seeing him like this. The only adjective he could use ‘destroyed’.

“Do.. you mi-” Scar started the offer of a hug, only barely having opened his arms when Grian threw himself into the newly turned wizard.

It was weird hugging Grian now, you didn’t have to account for his wings and the space they took up. It felt so empty.

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
  


**< GoodTimeWithScar> I found him**

**< GoodTimeWithScar> he’s a mess, and he doesnt have wings**

Grians communicator buzzed at the messages, far from his wrist or inventory, it continued buzzing with replies but he didn’t care. He cared that Scar was warm and comforting and hugging him and that he at least somewhat seemed to understand what his problems were without him saying anything. And he cared that Scar didn’t care that he cried into the purple robes and that when his knees gave out and exhaustion took him Scar sat with him on the floor until he calmed down, breaths still irregular and shallow. He felt pathetic while still grateful, like it was such a self centered thing to cry about but at the same time feeling that Scar was right, that he had been in the last world so long that his wings were a part of his person now, that he stopped being really Grian without them.

“Do you want to let the others come over? I think Mumbo’s worried and X could maybe help if this is a glitch or something” Scars voice was gentle and persuasive, he had no choice but to nod, it felt like the right step to take.

“Sorry about this..” he heard his own croaky voice say, regretting it instantly, looking into one of the stone walls of his room sized base.

“About what?” The others scarred face and mossy eyes moving into his field of view, his voice filled with genuine curiosity, the kind that only Scar could muster.

“..this” he replied, the word dripping of shame, gesturing to them both, to the situation they’d found themselves in. To that Scar nodded sagely, the beard made it more believable but Scar acting like a wise sage was more amusing than anything.

“Do you remember when you came to our world from Echo?”

“Evo.. but yeah?”

“Right! Well you didn’t have your wings before that and you struggled to learn to use them”

“mhm?” His confusion wasn’t subtle.

“Well the world before that one, where we came from, that’s where Cub and me met the vex” there was a realization dawning for Grian as Scar continued “and when we entered this world the vex weren’t with us from the start and it was like losing a whole sense, like I had been blinded” Grian could hear furious splashing outside “we found the plane we came there in and reconnected with the vex very fast so this isn’t my first time without them” he took a breath and looked out the still open door towards a sweaty, mustached man and his admin companion.

“You’re not alone Grian, and feeling like that isn’t something to be sorry over, and if you ever need to talk just come over since we’re neighbors now, okay?” He smiled and ruffled Grians hair.

“Thanks Scar” He might just cry again, but this time happy tears.


End file.
